Biography of Famous British Psychic Daniel Douglas Home Part 1

About the famous British psychic Daniel Douglas Home, his biography and early life including his first vision, how his seances went.

DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME (1833-1886).

Notable British psychic.

A luminous vapor gathered above the table, and, as they watched, slowly formed itself into a child's hand. . . . The room shook; the crystal pendants of the chandelier clashed together; the Empress's lace handkerchief climbed into space . . . an accordion held by Napoleon played melodious airs; and the table itself became light or heavy at command.

This peculiar occurrence at the court of Napoleon III, in 1857, was a routine event for those who frequented the parlors where Daniel Dunglas Home, medium, held his sÈances.

Born in Scotland, Daniel Home was raised in Connecticut by an aunt. He suffered from tuberculosis and was of a delicate constitution. At a very early age, Daniel gave evidence that he was not an average child. When he was 13, he had his 1st vision--a dead friend appeared before him, and shortly thereafter, he also saw his dead mother. By the time he was 17, furniture was moving unexpectedly around his aunt's house, and strange rapping sounds were often to be heard. In exasperation, his aunt threw him out of the house when he was 18.

Then began for Daniel a lifetime of exotic travels, aristocratic supporters, costly gifts, public outrage and scandal, and most of all, a series of perhaps the most extraordinary sÈances the world had seen.

The general format was this: In a well-lit room (Home despised the abundant imposters who plied their trade in the dark), Home would sit with a circle of about 8 eager persons, almost always members of the upper class. Home would enter a trancelike state, and the denizens of the spirit world would take over. Cool breezes would be felt, furniture would bump and shake, rapping sounds would be heard, spirit hands gloved in silk would materialize (sometimes those of a dead relation of someone in the room), and objects floated about independently or were borne by the disembodied hands, musical instruments (accordions were favored) were played by the spirit hands, and questions were answered by rappings. Sometimes there were spirit voices, and even inspirational sermons.